Macbeth Flashcards
(10 cards)
Name 4 key themes in Macbeth
Regicide, violence, betrayal, suffering, religion, supernatural
What structural technique accompanies the witches as they appear throughout the play
Pathetic fallacy - when the weather relates to the mood of the text (thunder and lightning)
How is Macbeth seen to be weak minded or easily manipulated?
Witches - ignore his commands when he asks them to speak. Uses equivocations
Lady Macbeth - emasculates him into committing regicide by making him feel less of a man
What 3 things are hallucinated by Macbeth and lady Macbeth? Give a quote to support your answer.
Macbeth hallucinates a dagger - “is this a dagger I see before me”
Macbeth hallucinates Banquo’s ghost after he has him executed - “never shake thy gory locks me”
Lady Macbeth hallucinates Duncan’s blood from the daggers a while after they have committed regicide - “Out damned spot. Out I say!”
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
Paradox - two opposites but exist together, shows the recurring theme of unnatural
“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter”
Equivocation - witches deliberately use misleading vocabulary to confuse Macbeth and manipulate him
“Stay you imperfect speakers”
Macbeth demands the witches to speak, they don’t listen - shows his lack of authority
“He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust”
Ironic - shows the theme of betrayal
“Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my deep and black desires”
Light and dark imagery - rhyming couplets to show immediate effect of the witches
“These deeds must not be thought after these ways, so it will make us mad”
Foreshadowing future insanity
